Ex-Hi Grades man with solo outing
Label: Pye
Year of Release: 1972
"Handbags and Gladrags" (penned by Mike D'Abo of Manfred Mann) is one of those songs which had a long journey towards finding its mass audience, waiting until 2001 to become a number 4 hit for The Stereophonics. On its travels towards that high point, it had been recorded by Chris Farlowe who got it to number 33 in 1968, and Rod Stewart (on a B-side in the UK, though it peaked just outside the Top 40 in the USA as an A-side) as well as Chase, The Rationals, Jimmy Witherspoon and Jon English to surprisingly even less success. Nestling amidst all those well-meaning flop readings was also an early version by Brummie duo Double Feature - still by far my favourite version of the track - and this ignored 45 by Desmier.
Desmier, or Glyn Desmier to give him his full name, was by 1972 a veteran club performer, cutting his teeth in the sixties beat group The Hi Grades with future production star Phil Wainman. They managed two singles, "New Orleans" released in Sweden in 1965 while the group toured there, and "She Cared" put out in the UK in the same year. The disappointing reaction to both records caused the group to give up the proverbial ghost, but Desmier pushed on regardless, his perseverance resulting in a trio of singles on Pye in 1972, "Gotta See You Tonight", "Love Is A Many Splendored Thing" and this one, all produced by Tony Hatch.
This version of "Handbags" doesn't radically alter the original arrangement but is well performed and Desmier could have been forgiven for believing he would be the one to bring the track the UK chart success it deserved. His vocal is strong and Hatch's arrangement is as well rendered as ever, side stepping any opportunities to be cornball or overly sentimental. Sadly, the British public still appeared to have little appetite for the tune and it was broadly ignored yet again, waiting to be picked up by Kelly Jones and his boys in the new century, who apparently only ever recorded a demo of it for fun. Hardly surprising they never believed it had a hope in hell of being a hit given its history, perhaps.
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5 comments:
You always find rare stuff to upload for us! Thank you!
Not crazy about the guy's voice but I like the b-side better. A bit poppier.
Glyn, always known as Des, performed and made his living from music up until the noughties. He was a friend and neighbour of mine with his beautiful Icelandic wife Kristin. We have lost them both in the last couple of years, sadly missed.
I'm really very sorry to hear that, Catawayo.
Des was my dad. I'm always looking out for his recordings.
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